I wish I had £1 every time someone quoted the ‘One per cent of the richest people in the UK pay 27 per cent of the total UK tax intake’ (Derek Chapplow letter, August 10). I would be a rich man myself!

If the richest one per cent pay 27 per cent of the total tax intake, that is their fair share. It indicates tellingly the sheer scale of wealth which they have accumulated.

Mr Chapplow suspects that most rich people have reached their pinnacle through ‘the application of hard work and talent’. Four out of 10 of the UK’s richest people inherited their wealth. Is it hard work and talent which enable a person to be born the son of the Duke of Westminster? Pardon me for my indolent failings which caused me to be born the grandson of a miner.

As for their ‘fair share’, Mr. Chapplow has forgotten sections of the accountancy industry which assist the very rich to protect their money from tax claims. One of those schemes was the non-dom process. A UK citizen, by living in Britain for 90 days or less per year, paid no tax. George Osborne announced a crackdown on this loophole in 2015. The changes took effect in 2017.

The result? More than 20,200 people have left the non-dom register in the past two years. They left the UK for locations which turn a blind eye to taxing their fortunes. The tax revenue losses are around £2 billion a year. ‘Paying their taxes’ is not something many super rich people want to do.

Paul Wordsworth, Burniston Grove, York

 

Let’s get back to being a nation of producers
Some countries make things; other countries grow stuff. 
We launched the Industrial and Agricultural Revolutions but now our role appears to be as major importers of everything, shufflers around of money and providers of divorce for very rich foreigners.
I hope that when the Brexit dust settles we will reboot our economy in favour of actual creators and producers and regain some of our national respect.
A V Martin, Westfield Close, Wigginton, York